1 Crucial skill that every Timberwolves star must work on this summer

Timberwolves-Anthony Edwards: Off-ball defense

At his age and factoring out the perception he had going into the draft, Edwards is as advanced a player as you can get. To prove that point, he had five 30-point playoff games, which is good for second and only behind LeBron James. Impressive, right?

In their five-game series versus the Denver Nuggets, Edwards averaged 31.6 points on an efficient 60.2 true shooting percentage. Scoring has also popped up in a wide variety, where he ranked seventh among players in the playoffs on points generated from drives (10.4 points), second in free throw attempts drawn in drives (3.6 attempts at 88.9%), and can create his own shots in isolations (4.0 points, which ranks 12th in the playoffs).

To be quite honest, it’s been tough to poke a main weakness in Edwards’ game. The strides of him becoming a good passer were evidenced by the 5.2 assists he had this postseason, which included a lot of drive and kick reads. In his defense, having a total of 3.8 stocks (steals plus blocks) is something that makes Edwards a really special two-way player at his peak.

But if we’re really unpacking the former No. 1 pick’s defense, there’s a small detail that he could just clean up a bit. It didn’t help that the Timberwolves played a Nuggets squad that incorporates a lot of movement, so guarding your primary guy wasn’t enough—where Edwards pretty much succeeded. A little polishing just needs to happen to fully cement the tag of a two-way star for Edwards.